Sebastian Brosche · 6 min · 651 words
Previously titled: Anatomy - Conclusion
The nature of this DVD, let me remind you, was to explore four concepts, compression, tension, orientation, and proportion. But the vast bulk of it was focused on compression. And what I want to reiterate over and over again, if I have the time, is just because this DVD was focused on compression, that doesn't mean that once you've found compression, your yoga practice is over. All we're trying to communicate with these exercises and examples is to get yogis to that however long it takes you in your yoga class, whether you find it on the first day that you're there because you're gifted, or whether it takes you years to stretch through your muscular tension and connective tissue constraints, sooner or later, the quality of what you feel in a yoga posture changes from tensile predominance to compressive predominance.
And even someone who found their compression points on these movements a decade ago, they still do yoga moving towards that point of compression because the aging process of the body is constantly trying to tighten us down and shrink us down. And every day you start over, opening yourself up so the energy can flow through your body. So compression is not bad, it is not evil, it is not to be avoided necessarily, it is actually a good thing in moderation for your bones to be compressed and stimulated. But it will change for you if when you're doing a warrior pose or a lunge and you're trying to open your pelvis and you recognize I can't open anymore because of compression, then it will very subtly but very importantly change for you that you will be more content to stay where you're at and now feel muscularly how can I change things, or energetically what's it like to just stay at this edge rather than relentlessly, endlessly pushing to go further.
That mentality is very beneficial, that's a young mentality to strive, to reach, to overcome. That is a necessary aspect of our life and in existence. There would be no art, no creativity, no enthusiasm, nothing new would be born without that young impulse to reach beyond ourselves. Never give that up.
But you just might have to channel it into a slightly different direction of pulling it through the soft tissues of your body rather than pushing hard up against in a possibly injurious way at a point of compression. Recognize the point of compression, accepting it, being calm with it, being content with what you have, that is a yin aspect of our existence and without it you get a society that's aggressive, violent, and competitive always in everything. With it we have peace, acceptance, forbearance, and empathy. I'm not asking you to give up yin or yang, that is not the Daoist way.
Reaching, striving for something we are not yet is the spur of life. Being content, being peaceful, absent of ambition is the spur of life. That is the quality of life. We can't have one without the other.
You can't have an inhale without an exhale. This DVD by the very nature of what it's set out to explore compression because that is what's not recognized so much in the yogic world. Because of that you could read everything we've done here as an over emphasis on compression and what you cannot do. But there's so much you can do.
No matter even if you found compression, it's a wonderful edge to play in all its variety, in all its various ways. The compression you find in a seal pose is not the same as the compression you find standing up in archery backwards. Energetically it's entirely different. And just because aesthetically you're never going to bend any further, that diminishes nothing from the emotional, energetic, healthful, mental, spiritual benefits of playing that edge.
Thank you for playing. Thank you.
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